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Anarcho-primitivism



 
 
Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist
Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing anarchist schools of thought which consider the state to be unnecessary, harmful, and/or undesirable....
 critique of the origins and progress of civilization
Civilization

A civilization is a society or culture group normally defined as a complex society characterized by the practice of agriculture and settlement in towns and city....
. According to anarcho-primitivism, the shift from hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary List of subsistence techniques involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either....
 to agricultural
Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
 subsistence gave rise to social stratification
Social stratification

In sociology and anthropology, social stratification is the hierarchy arrangement of social classes, castes and strata within a society. While these hierarchies are not universal to all societies, they are the norm among state-level cultures ....
, coercion
Coercion

Coercion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way by use of threats, intimidation, trickery, or some other form of pressure or force....
, and alienation
Social alienation

In sociology and critical social theory, alienation refers to an individual's estrangement from traditional community and others in general. It is considered by many that the Atomism of modernity means that individuals have shallower relations with other people than they would normally....
. Anarcho-primitivists advocate a return to non-"civilized" ways of life through deindustrialisation, abolition of division of labour
Division of labour

Division of labour or specialization is the specialization of cooperative Labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles, intended to increase the productivity of labour....
 or specialization
Specialization (functional)

Specialization is the separation of tasks within a system. In a multicellular creature, cells are specialized for functions such as bone construction or oxygen transport....
, and abandonment of large-scale organization technologies
Technology

Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its Natural environment....
. There are other non-anarchist forms of primitivism
Primitivism

Primitivism , or more accurately, "soft primitivism" -- the opinion that life was better or more moral during the early stages of mankind or among primitive peoples and has deteriorated with civilization -- is a response to the perennial question of whether the development of complex civilization and technology has benefited or harmed mankin...
, and not all primitivists point to the same phenomenon as the source of modern, civilized problems.

Many traditional anarchists reject the critique of civilization, many even denying that anarcho-primitivism has anything to do with anarchism, while some, such as Wolfi Landstreicher
Wolfi Landstreicher

Wolfi Landstreicher is the current nom de plume of a contemporary anarchism involved in theoretical and practical activity. He edited the anarchist publication Willful Disobedience, which was published from 1996 until 2005, and currently publishes a variety of anarchist, radical, surrealism and poetic pamphlets and booklets through his pr...
, endorse the critique but do not consider themselves anarcho-primitivists.






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Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist
Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing anarchist schools of thought which consider the state to be unnecessary, harmful, and/or undesirable....
 critique of the origins and progress of civilization
Civilization

A civilization is a society or culture group normally defined as a complex society characterized by the practice of agriculture and settlement in towns and city....
. According to anarcho-primitivism, the shift from hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary List of subsistence techniques involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either....
 to agricultural
Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
 subsistence gave rise to social stratification
Social stratification

In sociology and anthropology, social stratification is the hierarchy arrangement of social classes, castes and strata within a society. While these hierarchies are not universal to all societies, they are the norm among state-level cultures ....
, coercion
Coercion

Coercion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way by use of threats, intimidation, trickery, or some other form of pressure or force....
, and alienation
Social alienation

In sociology and critical social theory, alienation refers to an individual's estrangement from traditional community and others in general. It is considered by many that the Atomism of modernity means that individuals have shallower relations with other people than they would normally....
. Anarcho-primitivists advocate a return to non-"civilized" ways of life through deindustrialisation, abolition of division of labour
Division of labour

Division of labour or specialization is the specialization of cooperative Labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles, intended to increase the productivity of labour....
 or specialization
Specialization (functional)

Specialization is the separation of tasks within a system. In a multicellular creature, cells are specialized for functions such as bone construction or oxygen transport....
, and abandonment of large-scale organization technologies
Technology

Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its Natural environment....
. There are other non-anarchist forms of primitivism
Primitivism

Primitivism , or more accurately, "soft primitivism" -- the opinion that life was better or more moral during the early stages of mankind or among primitive peoples and has deteriorated with civilization -- is a response to the perennial question of whether the development of complex civilization and technology has benefited or harmed mankin...
, and not all primitivists point to the same phenomenon as the source of modern, civilized problems.

Many traditional anarchists reject the critique of civilization, many even denying that anarcho-primitivism has anything to do with anarchism, while some, such as Wolfi Landstreicher
Wolfi Landstreicher

Wolfi Landstreicher is the current nom de plume of a contemporary anarchism involved in theoretical and practical activity. He edited the anarchist publication Willful Disobedience, which was published from 1996 until 2005, and currently publishes a variety of anarchist, radical, surrealism and poetic pamphlets and booklets through his pr...
, endorse the critique but do not consider themselves anarcho-primitivists. Anarcho-primitivists are often distinguished by their focus on the praxis of achieving a feral
Feral

A feral organism is one that has escaped from domestication and returned, partly or wholly, to its wildlife state. The introduction of feral animals or plants, like any introduced species, can disrupt ecosystems and may, in some cases, contribute to extinction of indigenous species....
 state of being through "rewilding
Rewilding

In the field of conservation biology, the term rewilding refers to passive and active activities intended to result in the reintroduction of extirpated or once-native species back into natural landscapes....
".

Concepts

Anarcho-primitivists argue that prior to the advent of agriculture
Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
, humans lived in small, nomad
Nomad

Nomadic people, , also known as nomads, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than Settler in one location....
ic bands
Band society

A band society is the simplest form of human society. A band generally consists of a small kin group, no larger than an extended family or clan....
 which were socially, politically, and economically egalitarian
Egalitarianism

Egalitarianism or Equalism is a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political freedom, economic freedom, social justice, and civil rights rights....
. Being without hierarchy, these bands are sometimes viewed as embodying a precursor to anarchism
Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing anarchist schools of thought which consider the state to be unnecessary, harmful, and/or undesirable....
. John Moore
John Moore (anarchist)

John Moore was a United Kingdom anarchism author, teacher and organiser. He died after collapsing on his way to work as a creative writing lecturer at the University of Luton ....
 writes that anarcho-primitivism seeks "to expose, challenge and abolish all the multiple forms of power that structure the individual, social relations, and interrelations with the natural world." Primitivists hold that as a result of agriculture, the growing masses of humanity subtly became evermore beholden to technological processes and abstract power structure
Power structure

Power Structure may refer to:* Hierarchy* The Establishment...
s arising from the division of labour
Division of labour

Division of labour or specialization is the specialization of cooperative Labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles, intended to increase the productivity of labour....
 and hierarchy
Hierarchy

A 'hierarchy' is an arrangement of items The word derives from the Greek language , from ?e?????? , "president of sacred rites, high-priest" and that from , "sacred" + , "to lead, to rule"....
. Primitivists disagree over what degree of horticulture
Horticulture

'Horticulture' is the industry and science of plant cultivation. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, Crop , plant breeding and genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, and plant physiology....
 might be present in an anarchist society, with some arguing that permaculture
Permaculture

Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and perennial agriculture systems that mimic the relationships found in the natural Ecology....
 could have a role but others advocating a strictly hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary List of subsistence techniques involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either....
 subsistence.

Despite its rejection of what it characterizes as scientism
Scientism

The term scientism is used to describe the view that natural science has authority over all other interpretations of life, such as philosophy, religious, mythical, Spirituality, or humanism explanations, and over other fields of inquiry, such as the social sciences....
, primitivism has drawn heavily upon cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology

Cultural anthropology is one of four fields of anthropology as it developed in the United States. It is the branch of anthropology that has developed and promoted "culture" as a meaningful scientific concept, studied cultural variation among humans, and examined the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realiti...
 and archaeology
Archaeology

Archaeology, archeology, or arch?ology is the science that studies Homo cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, Artifact , features, Biofact s, and cultural landscape....
. Within the last half-century, societies once viewed as barbaric have been largely reevaluated by academics, some of whom now hold that early humans lived in relative peace and prosperity. Frank Hole, an early-agriculture specialist, and Kent Flannery, a specialist in Mesoamerican civilization, have noted that, "No group on earth has more leisure time than hunters and gatherers, who spend it primarily on games, conversation and relaxing."

Scholars such as Karl Polanyi
Karl Polanyi

Karl Paul Polanyi was a Hungary intellectual known for his opposition to traditional Economics thought and his influential book The Great Transformation....
 and Marshall Sahlins
Marshall Sahlins

Marshall David Sahlins is a prominent United States anthropologist. He received both a Bachelors and Masters degree at the University of Michigan where he studied with Leslie White, and earned his Ph.D....
 characterized primitive societies as gift economies
Gift economy

In the social sciences, a gift economy is a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards ....
 with "goods valued for their utility or beauty rather than cost; commodities exchanged more on the basis of need than of exchange value
Exchange value

In political economy and especially Marxian economics, exchange value refers to one of four major attributes of a commodity#Marxist_concept, i.e., an item or service produced for, and sold on the market....
; distribution to the society at large without regard to labor that members have invested; labor performed without the idea of a wage in return or individual benefit, indeed largely without the notion of 'work' at all." Other scholars and thinkers such as Paul Shepard
Paul Shepard

Paul Howe Shepard, Jr. is an United States environmentalism and author best known for introducing the "Pleistocene paradigm" to deep ecology. His works have attempted to establish a normative framework in terms of evolutionary theory and developmental psychology....
, influenced by anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss

Claude L?vi-Strauss is a French anthropologist....
, have written of the "Evolutionary Principle
Evolutionary Principle

The evolutionary principle is a largely psychological doctrine formulated by anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss which roughly states that when a species is removed from the Habitat in which it evolution, or that habitat changes significantly within a brief period, the species will develop maladaptive behavior....
" which roughly states that when a species is removed from its natural habitat its behaviors will become pathological. Shepard has written at length on ways in which the human species' natural "ontogeny", which developed through millions of years of evolution in a foraging mode of existence, has been disrupted due to a sedentary lifestyle
Sedentary lifestyle

Sedentary lifestyle is a medical terminology neologism used to denote a type of lifestyle most commonly found in modern cultures, characterized by sitting or remaining inactive for most of the day....
 caused by agriculture.

Civilization

Anarcho-primitivists view civilization as the logic
Logic

Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and inference. Logic is a branch of philosophy, a part of the classical Trivium . The word derives from Greek language ?????? , fem....
, institutions, and physical apparatus of domestication
Domestication

Domestication or taming refers to the process whereby a population of living things becomes accustomed to a controlled environment by other plants or animals through a process of Selective breeding....
, control, and domination. They focus primarily on the question of origins. Civilization is seen as the underlying problem or root of oppression, and must therefore be dismantled or destroyed.

Anarcho-primitivists describe the rise of civilization as the shift over the past 10,000 years from an existence within and deeply connected to the web of life, to one separated from and in control of the rest of life. They argue that prior to civilization there generally existed ample leisure time, considerable gender equality
Gender equality

Gender equality is the goal of the social equality of the genders or the sexes, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality....
 and social equality
Social equality

Social equality is a society state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in a certain respect....
, a non-destructive approach to the natural world, the absence of organized violence
Violence

Violence is the expression of physical force against self or other, compelling action against one's will on pain of being hurt. Variant uses of the term refer to the destruction of non-living objects ....
, no mediating or formal institutions, and strong health
Health

In 1948, the World Health Organisation defined health as ?a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.? ...
 and robustness. Anarcho-primitivists state that civilization inaugurated war
War

...
fare, the subjugation of women, population
Population

File:Population density.pngIn biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings....
 growth, busy work, concepts of property, entrenched hierarchies, as well as encouraging the spread of diseases. They claim that civilization begins with and relies on an enforced renunciation of instinctual freedom and that it is impossible to reform
Reform movement

A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society rather than rapid or fundamental changes....
 away such a renunciation.

Critique of symbolic culture

Anarcho-primitivists view the shift towards an increasingly symbolic
Symbolism

Symbolism is the applied use of symbols: iconic representations that carry particular meanings.The term "symbolism" is limited to use in contrast to "representationalism"; defining the general directions of a linear spectrum - where in all symbolic concepts can be viewed in relation, and where changes in context may imply systemic changes...
 culture
Culture

Culture is difficult to define. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions....
 as highly problematic in the sense that it separates us from direct interaction. Often the response to this view is something to the effect of, “So, you just want to grunt?" This might be the desire of a few, but typically the critique is regarding the problems inherent with a form of communication
Communication

Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs...",, 1: an act or instance of transmitting and 3 a: "a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or beha...
 and comprehension that relies primarily on symbolic thought at the expense (and even exclusion) of other sensual and unmediated means of comprehension. The emphasis on the symbolic is a departure from direct experience into mediated experience in the form of language
Language

A language is a form of symbol communication in which elements are combined to represents something other than themselves. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon....
, art
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
, number
Number

A number is a mathematical object used in counting and measurement. A notational symbol which represents a number is called a Numeral system, but in common usage the word number is used for both the abstract object and the symbol, as well as for the numeral for the number....
, time
Time

Time is a component of the measurement used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects....
, etc.

Anarcho-primitivists argue that symbolic culture filters our entire perception through formal and informal symbols and separates us from direct and unmediated contact with reality. It goes beyond just giving things names, and extends to having an indirect relationship with a distorted image of the world that has passed through the lens of representation. It is debatable whether humans are "hard-wired" for symbolic thought, or if it developed as a cultural change or adaptation, but, according to anarcho-primitivists, the symbolic mode of expression and understanding is limited and deceptive, and over-dependence upon it leads to objectification, alienation, and perceptual tunnel vision
Tunnel vision

In medical terms, tunnel vision is the loss of peripheral vision with retention of central vision, resulting in a constricted circular tunnel-like visual field....
. Many anarcho-primitivists promote and practice getting back in touch with and rekindling dormant and/or underutilized methods of interaction and cognition, such as touch and smell, as well as experimenting with and developing unique and personal modes of comprehension and expression.

The domestication of life

Domestication
Domestication

Domestication or taming refers to the process whereby a population of living things becomes accustomed to a controlled environment by other plants or animals through a process of Selective breeding....
, according to primitivists, is the process that civilization uses to induct and control life according to its strictly ordered logic. Essentially, domestication is the tendency of civilization, as an orderly, predictable system, to attempt to assimilate the entire rest of the universe into itself, to make the whole world into one colossal orderly, predictable system. The mechanisms of domestication are said to include: taming, breeding, genetically modifying, schooling, caging, intimidating, coercing, extorting from, promising, contracting, governing, enslaving, terrorizing, murdering, etc. Domestication is a pathological (read: "borne out of fear") power-process begun by some groups of early humans who wished to reduce the uncertainties and dangers of life, attempting to manufacture a completely safe and organized existence. It is ultimately this force
Technophilia

Technophilia refers generally to a strong enthusiasm for technology, especially new technologies such as personal computers, the Internet, mobile phones and home cinema....
 that primitivists (especially anarcho-primitivists) array themselves against.

Primitivists also describe it (more specifically) as the process by which previously nomad
Nomad

Nomadic people, , also known as nomads, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than Settler in one location....
ic human populations shift towards a sedentary or settled existence through agriculture
Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
 and animal husbandry
Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry, also called animal science, stockbreeding or simple husbandry, is the agriculture practice of animal breeding and raising livestock....
. They claim that this kind of domestication demands a totalitarian relationship with both the land and the plants and animals being domesticated - ultimately, it even requires a totalitarian relationship with humanity. They say that whereas, in a state of wildness, all life shares and competes for resources, domestication destroys this balance. The domesticated landscape (e.g. pastoral lands/agricultural fields and, to a lesser degree, horticulture
Horticulture

'Horticulture' is the industry and science of plant cultivation. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, Crop , plant breeding and genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, and plant physiology....
 and gardening
Gardening

Gardening is the practice of growing ornamental or useful plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance....
) is seen to necessitate the end of open sharing of the resources that formerly existed; where once “this was everyone’s,” it is now “mine.” Anarcho-primitivists argue that this notion of ownership laid the foundation for social hierarchy
Hierarchy

A 'hierarchy' is an arrangement of items The word derives from the Greek language , from ?e?????? , "president of sacred rites, high-priest" and that from , "sacred" + , "to lead, to rule"....
 as property and power emerged. It inevitably entailed the cultivation and exploitation of the surrounding environs and the creation of a simultaneous monopoly and monopsony
Monopsony

In economics, a monopsony is a market form in which only one buyer faces many sellers. It is an example of imperfect competition, similar to a monopoly, in which only one seller faces many buyers....
 by humans, and for humans - generating over time the value-based social structures we now know in which every conceivable physical thing from food to earth to genes to ideas are viewed as quantifiable assets, which are someone's private property. It also involved the destruction, enslavement, or assimilation of other groups of early people who did not attempt to make such a transition, or who were not as far along in the transition as the destroying, enslaving, and assimilating groups.

To primitivists, domestication not only changes the ecology from a free to a totalitarian order, it enslaves the species that are domesticated, as well as the domesticators themselves. According to primitivism, then, humans are nearing the beginning of the last phase of the domestication process as we are now experimenting with direct genetic engineering, and are making dramatic and frightening advances in the fields of psychology, anthropology, and sociology. This thereby allows us to quantify and objectify ourselves, until we too become commodities and property of no greater or lesser fundamental import than any other asset.

Origins and dynamics of patriarchy

Anarcho-primitivists hold that toward the beginning in the shift to civilization, an early product of domestication is patriarchy
Patriarchy

Patriarchy can be defined as the structuring of society on the basis of family units, where fathers have primary Social responsibility for the welfare of, and authority over, their families....
: the formalization of male domination and the development of institutions which reinforce it. Anarcho-primitivists say that by creating false gender
Gender

Gender comprises a range of differences between man and woman, extending from the biological to the social. Biologically, the male gender is defined by the presence of a Y-chromosome, and its absence in the female gender....
 distinctions and divisions between men and women, civilization, again, creates an “other” that can be objectified, controlled, dominated, utilized, and commodified. They see this as running parallel to the domestication of plants for agriculture and animals for herding, in general dynamics, and also in the specifics like the control of reproduction. Primitivists say that as in other realms of social stratification
Social stratification

In sociology and anthropology, social stratification is the hierarchy arrangement of social classes, castes and strata within a society. While these hierarchies are not universal to all societies, they are the norm among state-level cultures ....
, roles are assigned to women in order to establish a very rigid and predictable order, beneficial to hierarchy
Hierarchy

A 'hierarchy' is an arrangement of items The word derives from the Greek language , from ?e?????? , "president of sacred rites, high-priest" and that from , "sacred" + , "to lead, to rule"....
. They claim that women came to be seen as property
Property

Property is any physical or virtual entity that is ownership by an individual or jointly by a group of individuals. An owner of property has the right to consumption, sell, Renting, mortgage, transfer and exchange his or her property....
, no different from the crops in the field or the sheep in the pasture. Primitivists argue that ownership and absolute control, whether of land, plants, animals, slaves, children, or women, is part of the established dynamic of civilization.

Patriarchy, to a primitivist, demands the subjugation of the feminine and the usurpation of nature
Nature

File:Jungle in Punjab.JPGNature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe....
, propelling us toward total annihilation. They argue further that it defines power, control and dominion over wildness, freedom and life. They say that patriarchal conditioning dictates all of our interactions: with ourselves, our sexuality, our relationships to each other, and our relationship to nature. They claim it severely limits the spectrum of possible experience.

Division of labor and specialization

Anarcho-primitivists tend to see division of labor and specialization as fundamental and irreconcilable problems, decisive to social relationship within civilization. They see this disconnecting of the ability to care for ourselves and provide for our own needs as a technique of separation and dis-empowerment perpetuated by civilization. Specialization is seen as leading to inevitable inequalities of influence and undermining egalitarian relationships.

Rejection of science

Primitivists reject modern science
Science

In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
 as a method of understanding the world with a view to changing it. Science is not considered to be neutral by primitivists. It is seen as loaded with the motives and assumptions that come out of, and reinforce, civilization.

Modern scientific thought, according to primitivists, attempts to see the world as a collection of separate objects to be observed and understood. In order to accomplish this task, primitivists believe that scientists must distance themselves emotionally and physically, to have a one-way channel of information moving from the observed thing to the observer's self, which is defined as not a part of that thing.

Primitivists argue that this mechanistic worldview is tantamount to being the dominant religion of our time. Believing that science seeks to deal only with the quantitative
Quantitative

A quantitative attribute is one that exists in a range of magnitudes, and can therefore be measurement. Measurements of any particular quantitative property are expressed as a specific quantity, referred to as a Unit of measurement, multiplied by a number....
, primitivists suggest that it does not admit subjective values or emotions. While primitivists perceive science as claiming that only those things that are reproducible, predictable, and the same for all observers are real and important, primitivists believe that reality itself is not reproducible, predictable, or the same for all observers.

Science is seen by primitivists as only partially considering reality, and is therefore guilty of putative reductionism. Observability, objectifiability, quantifiability, predictability, controllability, and uniformity are said to be the objects and means of science. This, say primitivists, leads to the world view that everything should be objectified, quantified, controlled, and in uniformity with everything and everyone else. Primitivists also see science as promoting the idea that anomalous experience, anomalous ideas, and anomalous people should be cast off or destroyed like imperfectly shaped machine components.

The problem of technology

Primitivists denounce modern technology
Technology

Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its Natural environment....
 completely. They see it as a complex system involving division of labor, resource extraction, and exploitation for the benefit of those who implement its process. They argue that the interface with and result of modern technology is always an alienated, mediated, and distorted reality. Modern technology too, like science
Science

In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
, is seen as not being value-neutral. The values and goals of those who produce and control technology are believed always to be embedded within it.

Modern technology is held by primitivists to be distinct from simple tool
Tool

A broad definition of a tool is an entity used to interface between two or more domains that facilitates more effective action of one domain upon the other....
s in many regards. A simple tool is considered a temporary usage of an element within our immediate surroundings, used for a specific task. Tools are not viewed as involving complex systems which alienate the user from the act. Primitivists claim that this separation is implicit in technology, which creates an unhealthy and mediated experience which leads to various forms of authority. Domination is said to increase every time a modern “time-saving” technology is created, as primitivists claim it necessitates the construction of more technology to support, fuel, maintain, and repair the original technology. It is argued by primitivists that this leads very rapidly to the establishment of a complex technological system that seems to have an existence independent of the humans who created it. Primitivists believe that this system methodically destroys, eliminates, or subordinates the natural world, constructing a world fit only for machine
Machine

A machine is any device that uses energy to perform some activity. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work....
s.

Production and industrialism


According to primitivists a key component of the modern techno-capitalist
Technocapitalism

Technocapitalism is a term used to describe the changes in capitalism brought about by the emergence of high technology sectors in the economy....
 structure is industrialism, the mechanized system of production built on centralized power and the exploitation of people and nature. Industrialism cannot exist, they say, without genocide, ecocide, and colonialism. They further say that to maintain it, coercion, land evictions, forced labor, cultural destruction, assimilation, ecological devastation, and global trade
Globalization

Globalization in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together....
 are accepted as necessary, even benign. Primitivists claim industrialism’s standardization of life objectifies
Objectification

Objectification is the process by which abstract concepts are treated as if they were concrete things or physical objects. In this sense the term is synonym to reification....
 and commodifies it, viewing all life as a potential resource. They see their critique of industrialism as a natural extension of the anarchist critique of the state because they see industrialism as inherently authoritarian.

The primitivist argument against industrialism is such: In order to maintain an industrial society, one must set out to conquer and colonize lands in order to unsustainably acquire (generally) non-renewable resources to construct, feed, fuel, and grease the machines. This colonialism is rationalized by racism
Racism

Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that Race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race....
, sexism
Sexism

Sexism, a term coined in the late 20th century, refers to the belief or attitude that one gender or sex is inferior to or less valuable than the other....
, and cultural chauvinism. In the process of acquiring these resources, people must be forced off their land. Additionally, in order to make people work in the factories that produce the machines, they must be dispossessed, enslaved, made dependent, and otherwise subjected to the destructive, toxic, degrading industrial system.

Primitivists hold that industrialism cannot exist without massive centralization
Centralization

Centralization is the Process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding decision-making, become concentrated within a particular location and/or group....
 and specialization. Furthermore, they hold that industrialism demands that resources be shipped from all over the globe in order to perpetuate its existence, and this globalism, they say, undermines local autonomy and self-sufficiency.

Finally primitivists contend that a engineeric worldview is behind industrialism, and that this same world-view has justified slavery, genocide, ecocide, and the subjugation of women.

Beyond Leftism

Primitivists do not see themselves as part of the Left
Left-wing politics

In politics, left-wing, leftist, and the Left are terms applied to Social progressivism and Egalitarianism positions. Originally, during the French Revolution, left-wing referred to seating arrangements in parliament; those who sat on the left opposed the monarchy and supported Political radicalism reform....
 (see also post-left anarchy
Post-left anarchy

Post-left anarchy is a recent current in anarchist thought that promotes a critique of anarchism's relationship to traditional Left-wing politics....
). Rather they view the socialist and liberal
Liberalism

Liberalism is a broad class of political philosophy that considers individualism liberty and equality to be the most important political goals....
 orientations as corrupt. Primitivists argue that the Left has proven itself to be a monumental failure in its objectives. The Left, according to primitivists, is a general term and can roughly describe all socialist leanings (from social democrats and liberals to communists) which wish to re-socialize “the masses” into a more “progressive” agenda, often using coercive and manipulative approaches in order to create a false “unity” or the creation of political parties. While primitivists understand that the methods or extremes in implementation may differ, the overall push is seen as the same: the institution of a collectivized and monolithic world-view based on morality
Morality

Morality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct which is held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong....
.

Against mass society

Most anarchists
Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing anarchist schools of thought which consider the state to be unnecessary, harmful, and/or undesirable....
 and revolutionaries spend a significant portion of their time developing schemes and mechanisms for production, distribution, adjudication, and communication between large numbers of people; in other words, the functioning of a complex society. Primitivists do not accept the premise of global (or even regional) social, political, and economic coordination and interdependence, or the organization needed for their administration. They reject mass society for practical and philosophical reasons. First, they reject the inherent governmental representation necessary for the functioning of situations outside the realm of direct experience (completely decentralized modes of existence). They do not wish to run society or organize a different society. They want a completely different frame of reference. They want a world where each group is autonomous and decides on its own terms how to live, with all interactions being non-coercive, based on affinity, freedom, and openness.

According to primitivists, mass society brutally collides not only with autonomy and the individual, but also with the earth and the network of ecological relationships which make up its living communities. They see it as simply not sustainable (in terms of the resource extraction, transportation, and communication systems necessary for any global economic system). It cannot continue indefinitely, nor is it possible to create alternative plans for a sustainable and humane mass society.

Liberation and organization

Green and Black Flag
Primitivists argue that organizational models only provide us with more of the same. While it is recognized by some primitivists that there might be an occasional good intention, the organizational model is seen as coming from an inherently paternalistic and distrusting mindset which they hold is contradictory to anarchy
Anarchy

Anarchy may refer to any of the following:* "No ruler ship or enforced authority." * "Absence of government; a state of lawlessness due to the absence or inefficiency of the supreme power; political disorder."...
. Primitivists believe that true relationships of affinity come from a deep understanding of one another through intimate need-based relationships of day-to-day life, not relationships based on organizations, ideologies, or abstract ideas. They say that the organizational model suppresses individual needs and desires for “the good of the collective” as it attempts to standardize both resistance and vision. From parties, to platforms, to federations, primitivists argue that as the scale of projects increase, the meaning and relevance they have to an individual’s own life decrease.

Rather than the familiar organizational model, primitivists advocate the use of informal, affinity-based associations that they claim tend to minimize alienation from decision-making processes, and reduce mediation between our desires and our actions.

Revolution vs. reform

As anarchists, primitivists are fundamentally opposed to government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
, and likewise, any sort of collaboration or mediation with the state
The State

The State is a daily morning newspaper published in Columbia, South Carolina, South Carolina, in the United States. Owned by The McClatchy Company and distributed in most of List of counties in South Carolina, The State is the largest newspaper in the Palmetto State....
 (or any institution of hierarchy and control)—except as a matter of tactical expediency. This position determines a certain continuity or direction of strategy, historically referred to as revolution
Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental social change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time....
. By revolution, primitivists mean the ongoing struggle to alter the social and political landscape in a fundamental way: for anarchists, this means its complete dismantling. The word “revolution” is seen as dependent on the position from which it is directed, as well as what would be termed “revolutionary” activity. Again, for anarchists, this is activity which is aimed at the complete dissolution of abstract power.

Reform, on the other hand, is seen as entailing any activity or strategy aimed at adjusting, altering, or selectively maintaining elements of the current system, typically utilizing the methods or apparatus of that system. The goals and methods of revolution, it is argued, cannot be dictated by, nor performed within, the context of the system. For anarchists, revolution and reform invoke incompatible methods and aims, and despite the use of certain pragmatic expedient approaches, do not exist on a continuum.

For primitivists, revolutionary activity questions, challenges, and works to dismantle the entire set-up or paradigm of civilization. Revolution is not seen as a far-off or distant singular event which we build towards or prepare people for, but instead, a way of life, or a practice of approaching situations.

Influences

Anarchists contribute to an anti-authoritarian
Anti-authoritarian

Anti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism, which is defined as a "political doctrine advocating the principle of absolute rule: absolutism, autocracy, despotism, dictatorship, totalitarianism." Anti-authoritarians believe in an equal distribution of power among all people....
 push, which challenges all abstract power on a fundamental level, striving for truly egalitarian relationships and promoting communities based upon mutual aid . Primitivists, however, extend ideas of non-domination to all life, not just human life, going beyond the traditional anarchist's analysis. From anthropologists, primitivists are informed with a look at the origins of civilization, so as to understand what they are up against and how they got here, to help inform a change in direction. Inspired by the Luddites, primitivists rekindle an anti-technological/industrial direct action orientation. Insurrectionalists
Insurrectionary anarchism

Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory, practice and tendency within the anarchist movement which opposes formal anarchist organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based on a political programme and periodic congresses....
 infuse a perspective which waits not for the fine-tuning of critique, but identifies and spontaneously attacks civilization's current institutions.

Primitivists claim they owe much to the Situationists, and their critique of the Spectacle and alienating commodity society. Deep ecology
Deep ecology

Deep ecology is a recent branch of ecological philosophy that considers humankind an integral part of its natural environment. It is a body of thought that places greater value on non-human species, ecosystems and processes in nature than established environmental movement and green movements....
 informs the primitivist perspective with an understanding that the well-being and flourishing of all life is linked to the awareness of the inherent worth and intrinsic value of the non-human world independent of its economic use value. Primitivists see deep ecology’s appreciation for the richness and diversity of life as contributing to the realization that present human interference with the non-human world is coercive and excessive.

Bioregionalists
Bioregionalism

Bioregionalism is a political, cultural, and environmental system based on naturally-defined areas called bioregions, or ecoregions. Bioregions are defined through physical and environmental features, including Drainage basin boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics....
 bring the perspective of living within one’s bioregion, and being intimately connected to the land, water, climate, plants, animals, and general patterns of their bioregion.

Primitivists have been profoundly influenced by the various indigenous
Indigenous peoples

File:Kaiapos.jpegThe term indigenous peoples or autochthonous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside immigrants which have populated the region and which are greater in number....
 cultures and earth-based peoples throughout history and those who still currently exist. While primitivists attempt to learn and incorporate sustainable techniques for survival and healthier ways of interacting with life, they see it as important not to flatten or generalize native peoples and their cultures, and to respect and attempt to understand their diversity without co-opting cultural identities and characteristics. Primitivists also feel that it is important to understand that all humans have come from earth-based peoples forcibly removed from our connections with the earth, and therefore have a place within anti-colonial struggles.

They are also inspired by the feral
Feral

A feral organism is one that has escaped from domestication and returned, partly or wholly, to its wildlife state. The introduction of feral animals or plants, like any introduced species, can disrupt ecosystems and may, in some cases, contribute to extinction of indigenous species....
, those who have escaped domestication and have re-integrated with the wild. And, of course, primitivists honor the wild beings which make up the Earth. It is important to remember that, while many anarcho-primitivists draw influence from similar sources, anarcho-primitivism is something very personal to each individual who identifies or connects with these ideas and actions.

Rewilding and reconnection

For most primitivist anarchists, rewilding and reconnecting with the earth is a life project. They state that it should not be limited to intellectual comprehension or the practice of primitive skills, but, instead, that it is a deep understanding of the pervasive ways in which we are domesticated, fractured, and dislocated from ourselves, each other, and the world. Rewilding is understood as having a physical component which involves reclaiming skills and developing methods for a sustainable co-existence, including how to feed, shelter, and heal ourselves with the plants, animals, and materials occurring naturally in our bioregions. It is also said to include the dismantling of the physical manifestations, apparatus, and infrastructure of civilization.

Rewilding is also described as having an emotion
Emotion

An emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings, thoughts, and behavior.Emotions are subjective experiences, or experienced from an individual point of view....
al component, which involves healing ourselves and each other from what are perceived as 10,000-year-old wounds, learning how to live together in non-hierarchical and non-oppressive communities, and de-constructing the domesticating mindset in our social patterns. To the primitivist, “rewilding includes prioritizing direct experience and passion over mediation and alienation
Social alienation

In sociology and critical social theory, alienation refers to an individual's estrangement from traditional community and others in general. It is considered by many that the Atomism of modernity means that individuals have shallower relations with other people than they would normally....
, re-thinking every dynamic and aspect of reality, connecting with our feral fury to defend our lives and to fight for a liberated existence, developing more trust in our intuition and being more connected to our instincts, and regaining the balance that has been virtually destroyed after thousands of years of patriarchal control and domestication. Rewilding is the process of becoming uncivilized.”

Associations

In the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 anarcho-primitivism has been notably advocated by writers John Zerzan
John Zerzan

John Zerzan is an United States anarchism and anarcho-primitivism philosopher and author. His works criticize agriculture civilization as inherently oppressive, and advocate drawing upon the ways of life of hunter gatherer as an inspiration for what a free society should look like....
, Kevin Tucker, Daniel Quinn
Daniel Quinn

Daniel Quinn is a American environmentalist writer. He is best known for his book Ishmael , which won the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award in 1991....
, Derrick Jensen
Derrick Jensen

Derrick Jensen is an United States author and environmental activist living in Crescent City, California, California. Jensen has published several books questioning and critiquing contemporary society and its values, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame ....
, and John Gowdy. The anarcho-primitivist movement has connections to radical environmentalism
Radical environmentalism

Radical environmentalism, is a grassroots branch of the larger environmental movement that emerged out of an ecocentrism-based frustration with the co-option of mainstream environmentalism....
, gaining some attention due to the ideas of Theodore Kaczynski
Theodore Kaczynski

Theodore John Kaczynski [ka't???sk?i] , also known as the Unabomber, is an American mathematician and eventual neo-Luddite Social criticism who carried out a campaign of mail bombings....
 ("the Unabomber") following his Luddite
Luddite

The Luddites were a social movement of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland textile artisans in the early nineteenth century who protested—often by destroying mechanized looms—against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work....
 bombing campaign. Recently anarcho-primitivism has been enthusiastically explored by Green Anarchy
Green Anarchy

Green Anarchy is a magazine published by a collective located in Eugene, Oregon. The magazine's focus is on anarcho-primitivism, post-left anarchy, radical environmentalism, anarchist resistance, indigenous resistance, earth and animal liberation, anti-capitalism and supporting political prisoners....
, Species Traitor
Species Traitor

Species Traitor is a sporadically published journal of insurrectionary anarchism anarcho-primitivism. It is printed as a project of Black and Green Network....
, and occasionally Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed

Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed is a North American anarchism magazine, and is one of the most popular anarchist publications in North America....
, and even CrimethInc.
CrimethInc.

CrimethInc., also known as CWC , is a decentralized Anarchism collective composed of autonomous Clandestine cell system. CrimethInc. emerged in the mid-1990s ? initially as the hardcore zine Inside Front ? and began operating as a collective in 1996....
. The current anarcho-primitivist movement originated in the journal Fifth Estate, and was developed over a series of years in the 1970s and 1980s by writers such as Fredy Perlman
Fredy Perlman

Fredy Perlman was an author, publisher and activist. His most popular work, the book Against His-Story, Against Leviathan!, is a major source of inspiration for Anarcho-primitivism perspectives in contemporary anarchism....
, David Watson, Bob Brubaker and John Zerzan. Vast theoretical differences between Watson's and Zerzan's forms of primitivism caused a split in the late 1980s.

During the 1990s the UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 magazine Green Anarchist
Green Anarchist

The magazine Green Anarchist was for a while the principal voice in the United Kingdom advocating green anarchism, an explicit fusion of libertarian socialist and ecological thinking....
 aligned itself with anarcho-primitivism, although there are many green anarchists
Green anarchism

Green anarchism is a school of thought within anarchism which puts an emphasis on environmental issues. Some green anarchists can be described as anarcho-primitivism , though not all green anarchists are primitivists....
 who are not anarcho-primitivists.

Anti-civilization anarchists also organize groups in Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
, Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
, Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
, Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
, Finland
Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....
, and India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
.

Anarcho-primitivism is associated with and has influenced the radical tendencies within Neo-Tribalism
Neo-Tribalism

Neotribalism is the ideology that human beings have evolved to live in a tribe, as opposed to a modern, society, and thus cannot achieve genuine happiness until some semblance of tribal lifestyles has been re-created or re-embraced....
.

Criticism


Criticism from within anarchism

Notable critics of primitivism include Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky

Avram Noam Chomsky is an United States linguistics, philosopher, cognitive science, political activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor emeritus and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....
, Michael Albert
Michael Albert

Michael Albert is a longtime activist, speaker, and writer, is co-editor of ZNet, and co-editor and co-founder of Z Magazine. He also co-founded South End Press and has written numerous books and articles....
, Brian Sheppard, Andrew Flood, Stewart Home
Stewart Home

Stewart Home is a British artist, film maker, writer, subcultural pamphleteer, underground art historian, and activist.Home is best known in Anglo-American mainstream culture for his neo-conceptual art work and more recent novels, such as the non-narrative "69 Things To Do With A Dead Princess" , and his re-imagining of the 1960s in "Taint...
 and, especially, Murray Bookchin
Murray Bookchin

Murray Bookchin was an United States Libertarian socialism, political and social philosopher, speaker and writer. For much of his life he called himself an anarchist, although as early as 1995 he privately renounced his identification with the anarchist movement....
, as seen in his polemical work entitled "Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism," as well as the conflict between his "Social Ecology
Social ecology

Social Ecology is a philosophy developed by Murray Bookchin in the 1960s.It holds that present environmental issues are rooted in deep-seated social problems, particularly in dominatory hierarchical political and social systems....
" and the "Deep Ecology
Deep ecology

Deep ecology is a recent branch of ecological philosophy that considers humankind an integral part of its natural environment. It is a body of thought that places greater value on non-human species, ecosystems and processes in nature than established environmental movement and green movements....
" of many primitivists. Sheppard asserts that anarcho-primitivism is not a form of anarchism at all. In Anarchism Vs. Primitivism he says: "In recent decades, groups of quasi-religious mystics have begun equating the primitivism they advocate (rejection of science, rationality, and technology often lumped together under a blanket term "technology") with anarchism. In reality, the two have nothing to do with each other." Flood agrees with this assertion and points out that primitivism clashes with what he identifies as the fundamental goal of anarchism, "the creation of a free mass society". Primitivists do not believe that a "mass society
Mass society

Mass society is a description associated with society in the modern, Industry era. Descriptions of society as a "masses" took form in the 19th century, referring to the leveling tendencies in the period of the Industrial Revolution that undermined traditional and aristocracy values....
" is able to be free and believe industry and agriculture inevitably lead to hierarchy and alienation.

Population


Both critics and proponents of anarcho-primitivism agree that if everyone lived as a hunter-gatherer, the earth would be able to support far fewer people, possibly as little as one hundredth of today's 6.5 billion.

Civilization and violence

Another line of criticism attacks the anarcho-primitivist argument that hierarchy and violence result from civilization, citing for example, the dominance and territorial struggles observed in chimpanzee
Chimpanzee

Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially known as a chimp, is the common name for the two Extant taxon species of ape in the genus Pan where the Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
s. However, evidence of such behavior among humans or our equally close relatives the bonobo
Bonobo

The Bonobo , which, until recently, usually was called the Pygmy Chimpanzee and less often, the Dwarf or Gracile Chimpanzee, is a great ape and one of the two species making up the genus, chimpanzee....
s, is lacking prior to the Mesolithic
Mesolithic

The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age was a period in the development of human technology in between the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age and the Neolithic or New Stone Age....
 period 13,740 years ago
Cemetery 117

Cemetery 117 is an ancient cemetery discovered in 1964 by a team led by Fred Wendorf near the northern border of Sudan. The remains discovered there were determined to be between approximately 13,140 and 14,340 years old....
. Some thinkers within anarcho-primitivism, for example, Pierre Clastres
Pierre Clastres

Pierre Clastres, , was a France anthropology and ethnography. He is best known for his fieldwork among the Guayaki in Paraguay and his theory on stateless societies....
, offer an anthropological explanation of the necessity of a certain amount of violence, while embracing anarchy as the natural balance for primitive societies.

Anarcho-primitivists, based on several anthropological references, argue that hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary List of subsistence techniques involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either....
 societies, by their very nature are less susceptible to war, violence and diseases.

Hypocrisy

Few primitivist philosophers choose to live in primitive societies themselves. In order to disseminate their views, they make use of print and internet publishing technologies. Such arguments have been employed to suggest that anarcho-primitivists are insincere or hypocritical.

Derrick Jensen
Derrick Jensen

Derrick Jensen is an United States author and environmental activist living in Crescent City, California, California. Jensen has published several books questioning and critiquing contemporary society and its values, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame ....
 has responded to these critics first by saying that it "reveals the weakness of their own position: they cannot rebut the substance of our message, so they simply attack the messenger." Additionally he states emphatically that the critics are accurate in saying that primitivists do not live a primitivist lifestyle; everything about our civilization is inherently destructive, whether buying his books or "something from Global Exchange
Global Exchange

Global Exchange is an advocacy group and non-governmental organization , based in San Francisco, California, United States. It was founded in 1988, and funds itself through memberships....
". In this he indicates that no legitimate options exist within the system and it is necessary that people "dismantle the industrial economy."

He later adds that although it is important for people to make lifestyle changes to mitigate damage, "to assign primary responsibility to oneself, and to focus primarily on making oneself better, is an immense copout, an abrogation of responsibility. With all the world at stake, it is self-indulgent, self-righteous, and self-important. It is also nearly ubiquitous. And it serves the interests of those in power by keeping our focus off them."

Practicality

Another question regarding anarcho-primitivism is the practicality. John Zerzan admits that primitivist ideals are difficult even for the convinced to put into practice: “It’s a huge challenge. You've got these great grandiose ideas, but the rubber has to hit the road somewhere, and we know that. I don’t know how that's going to work.… [W]e are a long way from connecting with that reality and we have to face that. You start off with questioning things and trying to enlarge the space where people can have dialogue and raise the questions that are not being raised anywhere else. But we don’t have blueprints as to what people should do.”

The distinction between tools and technology

Some have argued that the primitivist distinction between acceptable tool use and unacceptable technological dependence is incoherent and cannot be sustained in the light of archaeological and anthropological evidence. Tool use in modern hunter-gatherer societies, it is argued, cannot be characterised as merely a temporary usage of an element from the immediate surroundings used for a specific task. This would be a better description of chimpanzee tool use. Rather, tool culture is complex and organised, and often involves a degree of division of labour, as well as considerable knowledge of the local environment. Tools and other objects of value have been traded since the Middle Paleolithic
Middle Paleolithic

The Middle Paleolithic is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology....
 120,000 years ago.

The critique of language

Because some primitivists have extended their critique of symbolic culture to language itself, Georgetown University
Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a Society of Jesus private university located in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Father John Carroll founded the school in 1789, though its roots extend back to 1634....
 professor Mark Lance
Mark Lance

Mark Lance is a professor in the Philosophy Department and Justice and Peace Studies Program at Georgetown University. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh under the direction of Robert Brandom and his main area of expertise is the philosophy of language, epistemology, philosophical logic and metaphysics....
 describes primitivism as "literally insane, for proper communication is necessary to create within the box a means to destroy the box."

See also

  • Antimodernism
  • Eco-anarchism
  • Eco-communalism
    Eco-communalism

    Eco-communalism is an environmental philosophy based on ideals of simple living, local economies, and self-sufficiency . Eco-communalists envision a future in which the economic system of capitalism is replaced with a global web of economically interdependent and interconnected small local communities....
  • Ecofeminism
    Ecofeminism

    Ecofeminism is a social and political movement which points to the existence of considerable common ground between environmentalism and feminism, with some currents linking deep ecology and feminism....
  • Green anarchy
    Green Anarchy

    Green Anarchy is a magazine published by a collective located in Eugene, Oregon. The magazine's focus is on anarcho-primitivism, post-left anarchy, radical environmentalism, anarchist resistance, indigenous resistance, earth and animal liberation, anti-capitalism and supporting political prisoners....
  • Hunter-gatherer
    Hunter-gatherer

    A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary List of subsistence techniques involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either....
  • Earth liberation
    Earth liberation

    Earth liberation as no universal understanding as a concept, as it is much considered to be a part of radical environmentalism, or as a militant off-shoot, favouring instead radical and revolutionary environmentalism....
  • Deindustrialization
    Deindustrialization

    Deindustrialization is a process of social and economic change caused by the removal or reduction of Industry capacity or activity in a country or region, especially heavy industry or manufacturing industry....
  • Post-left anarchy
    Post-left anarchy

    Post-left anarchy is a recent current in anarchist thought that promotes a critique of anarchism's relationship to traditional Left-wing politics....
  • Neo-Luddism
    Neo-luddism

    The term Luddite is a political/historical term relating to a luddites during the Industrial Revolution; it is primarily used to describe those perceived as being uncompromisingly or unnecessarily opposed to technological or scientific innovations....
  • Primitive communism
    Primitive communism

    Primitive communism is:A term usually associated with Karl Marx, but most fully elaborated by Friedrich Engels , and referring to the collective right to basic resources, egalitarianism in social relationships, and absence of authoritarian rule and hierarchy that is supposed to have preceded stratification and exploitation in human history....
  • Neo-Tribalism
    Neo-Tribalism

    Neotribalism is the ideology that human beings have evolved to live in a tribe, as opposed to a modern, society, and thus cannot achieve genuine happiness until some semblance of tribal lifestyles has been re-created or re-embraced....
  • Anti-psychiatry
    Anti-psychiatry

    See also: Biopsychiatry controversyAnti-psychiatry usually refers to a movement that emerged in the 1960s hostile to most of the fundamental assumptions and common practices of psychiatry....
  • Simple living
    Simple living

    Simple living is a lifestyle characterized by minimizing the 'more-is-better' pursuit of wealth and Consumerism. Adherents may choose simple living for a variety of personal reasons, such as spirituality, health, increase in 'quality time' for family and friends, Stress reduction, personal taste or frugality....


External links

  • June 2006 conversation with John Zerzan and the UK band, also here
  • by John Moore
    John Moore (anarchist)

    John Moore was a United Kingdom anarchism author, teacher and organiser. He died after collapsing on his way to work as a creative writing lecturer at the University of Luton ....
  • – a critique of the ideology from an anarchist perspective
  • - anarchist criticism of primitivism
  • - an anarcho-primitivist response to common criticisms
  • Critical of primitivism, but somewhat sympathetic
  • Turkish
  • by Layla AR